updated 04:55 pm EDT, Mon August 29, 2011

Isis to get $100 million infusion from founders

The joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless that is mobile payment company Isis will get a more than $100 million investment from its founders, Bloombergreported, citing unnamed sources. The private financing will help the company compete with rival firms that offer mobile payments, including Google. How much funding will come Isis' way depends on how successful the company is at bringing banks and merchants onboard, however.

The market of tapping devices at a checkout for payment may grow to as much as $670 billion by 2015, Juniper Research believes. Before year's end, such mobile payments across the world will amount to $240 billion, the consulting firm found.

Isis, due to go live in large US cities like Salt Lake City and Austin in 2012, will also let users get and redeem coupons on their mobile devices. Participating companies will be charged a fee for this option.

Isis formed partnerships with Visa, MasterCard, Discover Financial Services and American Express. Visa is also working on its own mobile payment service.

Samsung and BlackBerry maker RIM are already making handsets with near-field communications (NFC) to make the mobile payments possible. Nokia, Apple, and others are also either developing or rumored to be developing phones with NFC built-in.